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Project Description

Yarn Graffiti documentary

Documentary Proposal:

Imagine you’re walking through an urban city; it’s cold and grey outside. All the buildings blend in with the concrete side walk and paved roads. The people seem just as cold and unexciting; listening to earphones, hypnotized by their smart phones, drifting through the day. As you continue your stroll, a splash of color suddenly jumps into your view from the grey world of the metropolis. A brightly colored pattern has been knitted over an old parking meter. The radiant pattern is wrapped around the poll like the sleeve of a sweater. You are not the only one stopped your tracks. There is a crowd of people, smiling, taking pictures and laughing. A child hugs the parking meter, posing for a picture. You take it in, and go on to work, feeling a little better than you did before.

Like bingo or shuffleboard, Knitting and crocheting has traditionally been associated with older, retired Americans, specifically grandmas. However in the past decade, the onset of blogs and online communities has brought knit and crochet art into the hands of a younger medium. Just as graffiti artists would spray paint enormous murals in urban areas, a new generation of craftsman are knitting gigantic patterns over billboards, walls, statues and even buses. “If we were British, we’d all havecozies on our teapot, “ says the New York Times, “but we’re New Yorkers, so we have cozies for our parking meters.” From New York to London to Stockhom, pedestrians are finding a fresh, radiant life in the world’s cityscapes.

The proposed documentary will offer a history of the Yarn Graffiti movement, through the words and projects of the world’s foremost “Fiber Artists”. The crew will travel around the world, documenting each of these knitting masters as they take on their own unique projects.

In Austin, TX there is Magde Sayeg. She is often regarded of the founder of the movement . Bored with her math degree and running a boutique, she one day knitted a geometric pattern over the door knob of her store. Today, her group, “Knitta, Please” , commands dozens of employees and installation projects around the globe. In the Netherlands, Evelein Verkerk of “Knitted Landscape” will knit a rose on a cracked city street or a birds nest on a rusted gutter. Her mission is to remind people that run down Urban areas were once occupied by vegetation and wildlife. In the United Kingdom, a group of eccentric fiber artists will go out in the middle of the night, covering street signs and billboards of London in extravagant patterns.Similar to urban artists, such as Banksy, whose work have become more mainstream rather than controversial, Yarn Bombing is growing into a business rather than an art. This documentary will tackle the different sides of the craft and the ethics that go along with it. The fiber artists will also touch on the gender separation of this art and how most urban art graffiti is done by males while most fiber art is done by females.

This documentary will be a feature length film, roughly 60-90 minutes, comparing and contrasting 4-6 different yarn bombers/fiber artists while making a retrospective history of the movement itself.